Maestas apologizes to families

By Matt Pordum

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

In a voice just above a whisper, Beau Maestas apologized Monday to the little girl he left paralyzed and to the family of her half-sister whom he killed as he addressed the jury who will decide his fate.

Maestas, who has sat silent with his head down throughout the four-day long penalty hearing, was brief as he recalled "this terrible thing that never should have happened."

"I would like to apologize to Brittney Bergeron for what I've done," he said. "Because of my actions that night, she'll forever be confined to a wheelchair and she's lost her sister."

Maestas previously pleaded guilty to one count each of murder, attempted murder and burglary, all with use of a deadly weapon for the January 2003 killing of 3-year-old Kristyanna Cowan and the stabbing of her half-sister, Brittney, in a trailer in the CasaBlanca hotel RV park in Mesquite.

Brittney was left paralyzed from the waist down.

"To the families, Mr. Cowan, Mr. Bergeron and Mrs. Schmidt, I think her name is now, I'm sorry for that's happened to you, to your daughters."

Maestas also apologized to his family for the "shame that I've brought."

Prosecutors contend Maestas and his sister, Monique, committed the killings after they discovered that the children's mother, Tamara Ann Bergeron at the time, and her now husband, John Schmidt, sold them fake methamphetamine for $125.

No trial date has been set for Monique Maestas, who faces the same charges as her brother plus one count of conspiracy to commit murder.

Beau Maestas' statement came after three of his family members and his juvenile probation officer from Salt Lake City told the jury about the child and teenager they knew before the attack.

Maestas smiled briefly as his older sister Misty Maestas took the witness stand and identified her brother, pointing and calling him a "handsome gentleman."

Misty Maestas said her mother, Marilyn, and father, Harry Maestas, met in prison when her mother was visiting friends who were incarcerated with Harry Maestas.

Harry Maestas was imprisoned for second-degree murder when his children were born. She said Beau, Monique and herself were conceived during weekend visits home, which were granted for inmates with good behavior.

Misty Maestas said her father would be in and out of prison throughout most of her life, and when he was out of custody, there was a lot of "fighting between Mom and Dad."

She said her father displayed "military type behavior " and would regularly wake up the entire family at 4:30 a.m. and make them clean their bedrooms and the house and then inspect their work. Misty Maestas said her brother, sister and mother would "get in trouble" if a shoelace in a closet was not tucked in.

When she was between 4 and 5 years of age and Beau Maestas was between 2 and 4, Misty Maestas said, her parents became involved in selling drugs.

She said she was the person who took care of both Beau and Monique throughout their childhood.

The fact that neither Beau's mother nor father cared much for him was highlighted by the fact neither would come to testify at his penalty hearing.

Misty Maestas said there were "no hugs, no I love yous" in their house and that insulting each other "was our form of affection."

She said her brother is "a very smart boy, a very kind boy" that if "given the opportunity would do very well."

Carolyn Harris Roehrig, twin sister of Beau's mother, said Harry Maestas was always "hitting and getting the belt especially on Beau -- it was horrible."

"Whenever I tried to intervene he (Harry Maestas) would tell me if I came a step closer I'd be next," Roehrig said.

Roehrig said the beatings that often came as a result of Beau not being able to tie his shoes occurred when Beau was between 3 and 6 years old. She said Beau Maestas "started fighting back and would run away and began starting to get angry when people were mean to him."

Roehrig, who hasn't talked to her sister in 15 years, said Marilyn Maestas would use Harry Maestas as a threat against anyone Marilyn Maestas had a problem with.

"If you treat Beau with kindness and respect, he treats you with kindness and respect," Roehrig said. "He was always helping the elderly in the neighborhood and always kind to children."

Roehrig said Marilyn Maestas was just as bad a parent without Harry Maestas in her life as she explained the horrible actions her sister committed after she had divorced and began seeing a new man.

Roehrig said her best friend was a "sensitive, kind" jeweler who after he lost his business moved into the same apartment complex as the Maestas family lived in. She said her friend "adored" Beau and Monique Maestas and would watch them when Marilyn Maestas wasn't home.

Roehrig said her sister got mad at the man and "skinned his cat and nailed its head to his door." She said Marilyn Maestas continued to threaten her friend and he ultimately "committed suicide because of the trauma."

She said when she heard about the crimes Beau Maestas was accused of "I cried and I'm still crying."

"We're all hurt," Roehrig said. "It's hard to believe he would do such a thing. If it weren't for drugs and people not being there for him, never in a million years would he have hurt anybody."

Dr. David Schmidt, a clinical psychologist who specializes in examining killers, said "I don't have an excuse for what Beau did, it doesn't make sense."

"He's not a stone killer, but he did awful things and I can't explain it," Schmidt said.

Schmidt said he spent more time studying the Maestas case then any of the 65 to 70 first-degree murderers he's studied, and he's never been left this confused as to why a person committed a killing.

Schmidt said Maestas had an average intelligence but had a "horrible childhood."

"The more you look at his environment, the more you have an individual that's not getting the direction you need," Schmidt said. "There was no one who was a stable resource in his life."

The psychologist, who spent roughly 10 hours face to face with Maestas, also couldn't fully explain the letters Maestas wrote in which he made light of the killings.

Schmidt said the letters were not "consistent" with the Beau Maestas he studied. He said the letters might be an example of a "kid that's trying to act tough in a difficult situation."

"He can talk the talk, but when I look at Beau he doesn't seem to walk the walk."

Closing arguments in the penalty hearing were expected this afternoon before District Judge Donald Mosley.